Sunday, April 10, 2011
When it comes to our careers, our personal philosophy will be slightly different than many of our peers and colleagues. As interdisciplinarians, we are being trained to think in a manner that encourages synthesis of information, thinking outside of the box, and well rounded approaches to solving problems. Our professions may take us in many directions, and we must always keep in mind that there is not on single way or one right way to live our professional lives. I know that for me personally, my thoughts regarding my professional life has changed dramatically from focusing on a single scientific discipline, to a more laid back all inclusive artistic approach. My career goals have come full circle from Molecular & Microbiology to IDS Commerce and Behavioral Science and I am excited to embrace my new Interdisciplinary future. This week discuss your own personal philosophy concerning your professional life. How is or isn't this interdisciplinary? Lastly, how have your career goals altered ?
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My career goals have altered a great deal since beginning my collegiate career. I entered Valencia with a declared major of education which lasted maybe my first three semesters. I was a nanny for a family which included 4 rambunctious boys; the experience eliminated my dreams of a career with children. Then I became fascinated in the healthcare field more specifically optometry. I began working as an optometric technician and the doctor’s general dissatisfaction with their chosen path helped me to weed out my goals of becoming an optometrist. Through my employment as an optometric technician I was promoted to an assistant regional manager and the seed was planted for a career in business management. My path was again altered towards a degree in business management. I wish that I had more perseverance in regards to optometry. I feel I missed out on an amazing opportunity and would have been a valuable resource as an optometrist with the aging population. I really enjoyed the field and though I may no longer be in the specialty of optometry I remain in the healthcare field. As I have taken courses in all of these interests and spent extensive amounts of time and resources in these varied fields of study I am now led to intertwining these previous areas of study into my current major of interdisciplinary studies. I will use my degree as a stepping stone and apply for both law and graduate school upon graduation. At this point my philosophy is, I may not know where I am going or when I get there but as long as I am happy, healthy and successful the rest can wait. I cannot assure myself or you that I have figured out a definite career path but my world is full of possibilities and I will have a full life figuring it all out.
ReplyDeleteTo be honest my career path has not altered much since kindergarten, no joke. I was one of those children who knew exactly what they wanted to be and stuck to it. There are not many of us out there but I’m happy to be one of the few with a steadfast goal. My parents are both doctors and growing up I thought what they did was the coolest. As I grew up, and the more I learned about their profession the more I saw it was exactly what I wanted to pursue. I stuck to it and stuck through it all through middle school, high school and graduated second in my class. Now in my undergrad and fast approaching graduation I’m still set on my goal and am slowly but surely making my way to medical school. This pass through though I got to choose my classes, my academic path and this is where IDS came into play. I didn’t want to go the traditionally route because I love learning and have a great respect for the liberal arts. I strive to be a well rounded person and want to take a more holistic approach medicine than I thought would be offered by the traditional sciences only route. I’m now taking sciences, languages, psychology, philosophy and anthropology class thanks to the IDS program and am loving my academic experience. My personal philosophy of well roundedness and appreciation for diversity of disciplines I believe will help me see my patients more holistically as a doctor.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that my career goals havent changed much since i first started at UCF, it is now my fourth year and i am graduating soon, i knew that i was wanted to go into healthcare. Therefore, i always have chosen healthcare degrees. And the more classes i took relating to health the more interested i became. I first started out as a biology major but pretty quickly i changed it to nursing and then now to IDS and honestly it has been a great choice. I am still taking health science classes that i love and at the same time i am taking psychology classes as well which i also like as well. And i feel that the combination of these two will actually help me better in my future jobs as i will be able to hopefully understand the patients mind more clearly.
ReplyDelete-Benjamin Rivera
My career plans have done almost a full circle since last semester. I was originally A Business Administration Major student. However, when i found out the IDS can provide me a minor in Business and allow me to take the pre-med sciences for medical it gave me a better opportunity. Before college i wanted to study biomedical enginerring but got pushed to business by parents. However, i changed it because i knew i can do better something in which i can help people which is something i always do. My reamainig courses are all sciences which are challenging and fun at the same time. Later on my career my minor on Business can help me when i open my private practice.
ReplyDelete@ Lindsey & Benjamin
ReplyDeleteIt is wonderful you both have stuck to your goals and contiued on your chosen career path.
-Shannon
@Shannon
ReplyDeleteWow you have done so much in your career as of now. The experinces you have will definetely help you when you are applying to law school and graduate school. Keep up the great job.
@Lindsey
That is cool that both of your parents are doctors. By chance do you know what you want to specialize in?
@ Edison.
ReplyDeleteI think it is very important you are studying business as well. Many physicians do not have a clue how to run a business. This will put you a step ahead of the game.
-Shannon
Thanks Edison!
ReplyDeleteMy own person philosophy concerning professional life is: to strive to be the best you, you can be everyday, even though someday my best may be better than other days -- its okay as long as I recognize my downfalls and work to improve them.. Know there are multiple ways to reach a goal, thus keep an open mind to learning new methods to try and reach my goals. Keep in mind that you can learn something from most any situation and most any person.
ReplyDeleteI have always been interested in the interdisciplinary nature of college, like where my ethics class intersects with my biology class intersects with my English class - its exciting to me to see the interactions between disciplines. I am so glad I have the opportunity to design my own interdisciplinary education, here at UCF.
My specific goals have changed dramatically but some of my motivations have remained the same. I came to UCF as a Mechanical Engineering major switched to English Education then to Molecular and Microbiology, and finally determined interdisciplinary was correct for me!
@ Lindsey
ReplyDeleteWhat kind of doctors are your parents? Do you have a specialty in mind? Very cool that you knew what you wanted to do at such a young age! I had no idea what I wanted to until college, I just wanted to do a little bit of everything, haha. I admire your desire to approach medicine in a holistic manner; I want to approach it in a similar manner, encompassing liberal arts education into my study of hard sciences. Do you want to go into osteopathic medicine or allopathic?
@ Edison
I'm proud of you for sticking to your motivations and desires, rather than completely giving in to your parents' pushing. I think its very important for individuals to BE THEIR OWN self. Business minor and knowledge will be very helpful when you go to open your own practice or even potentially work in health-care administration.
Do you have any recommendations for some basic business knowledge for other pre-med students? Any business class that really stood out in your education?
In my professional life my own personal philosophy is about being prepared for future trials that I may cross paths with. Preparation leads to approaching challenges with confidence and I believe that confidence is contagious. I believe on a team one person’s confidence can be exposed to their teammates cause them to be confident and perform better. It is interdisciplinary because being prepared for challenges ahead of time leads to be more confident, which can cause co-workers to perform better at theirs tasks. My career goals have altered by learning how to approach trials that may come my way.
ReplyDelete-Jeremy Amin
My philosophy has always been to set my intentions and have a general idea where I would like to be, and life will provide you with the necessary opportunities for self development. Once you set your intention, just ride the winds of life and see how it gets you to where you want to be. My approach to my career has not changed significantly since becoming an interdisciplinary student. I do however have a better appreciation and understanding of all the skills I've developed over my college career. I am also more fearless when it comes to applying them during my time off in Europe, verses passively absorbing the culture. I understand the importance in applying them in order to gain new professional experience. I feel that part of being a good physician is having a good understanding of cultural diversity and understanding how healthcare affects the lives of those that I provide care to. From this course I have learned to see my job in the emergency department in a new light. I now better understand the disparities that people without insurance or that are on medicaid experience. Finally I understand fully what my knowledge is worth, as well as the value of the continual acquisition of knowledge.
ReplyDelete~Andrea Graves
@Erin I love the theory that there are multiple ways to reach a personal goal! Its so very true. It reminds me of a statement I once read somewhere. It said that life is not about fulfilling your destiny or finding out who you are. Its about creating yourself exactly the way you want to be.
@Edison Thats very cool that you started off on a business route. Business and medicine are so completely different, and its rare that someone goes from one to the other! That shows that you are very tenacious, and that you follow your heart which is one of the most important attributes of a physician.
I am a very free spirit, so I hope that my professional experiences will always enable me to be one. I like to be independent, and I like to be happy and passionate about what I'm doing. My career path has changed a lot over the past few years. Originally, I always wanted to be a psychologist, so I majored in Psychology. Then, I decided that I wanted to be a doctor. From there, I decided that working in a lab and playing with bacteria all day would be super awesome. Then, epiphany....there's no way I could do animal research. So, all of a sudden, I went to Epidemiologist. And that's what has stuck for about two years now. I'm ready to graduate, and head on to grad school to fulfill that dream. :)
ReplyDelete-Jessica Starr
@ lindsey warner
ReplyDeletewow i cant believe that you havent changed your career since kindergarden. You are definitely one of those rare people that know what they want to do since they were kids, that is awesome.
@ Jessica Starr
I can agree with you with being free spirit, because i am as well very care free, and it seems you have done a lot already, i wish you luck in your future.
-Benjamin Rivera
My personal philosophy concerning my professional life is that I will take life one day at a time, and with God, my family, and friends, I will make it through anything that I strive for. I plan on becoming a physician assistant and traveling to different parts of the world helping people, and then specialize in pediatrics and settle down in one area but still travel occasionally to help others with great need. I have a passion for helping people and I plan to embrace it even more when I become a successful P.A. I know with Christ I have no fear so I try and not to stress about anything and just do my best in everything I set out to do. I believe this is interdisciplinary because I will be using my health sciences minor and my two areas of study all in my career. My career goals have altered somewhat, I am still in the medical field, however, instead of becoming a Pediatrician, I chose a physician assistant specializing in pediatrics so I can live a more flexible and realistic life.This class has helped me greatly with researching my future career and I am happy with my decision right now. :)
ReplyDelete@AndreaG I also agree with the comment you made about having a better appreciation and understanding of all the skills developed over our college careers. That is the best statement that could be made because I definitely appreciate so many things now that I've been in college.
ReplyDelete@Jessica Star- I am the same way when it comes to personality and my career "I like to be independent, and I like to be happy and passionate about what I'm doing." I believe that is the best way to be and if you don't like your career than your life will not be satisfactory and you wouldn't want to live like that!
I don’t feel like my career goals have altered that much. Ever since I was little whenever I was asked the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up?” my reply was always a pediatrician. It wasn’t until high school that I decided that I wanted to study Physical Therapy. This past year I started to realize that my classes were beginning to get more difficult and the length of school started to increase. I however, was not in favor of this. After that point I decided that I wanted to change my major once again but I didn’t know what it was that I wanted to spend the rest of my life doing. Although, I have changed career paths a few times, I have always leaned towards the medical side or at least something that involves helping people. Therefore, I opted to minor in health science and education with hopes of being to make a difference in someone’s life at some point.
ReplyDelete@Shannon,
I feel like we have gone down some of the same paths. I’m currently minoring in education and I nanny for a family of three, which keeps me very occupied! I always wanted to be part of the health care field but realistically I just didn’t want to be in school for that long. I regret not following my dreams but I think things will be better of this way.
@Lindsey Warner,
I agree IDS does help you become well rounded. I have had a pretty good academic experience as well and I’m really enjoying what I am doing. I also, think that it’s pretty neat that you knew what you wanted to do at such a young age. Best of luck!
-Megan Sebastian
@ Megan
ReplyDeleteThanks! you too! I'm sure your direction will come to you as you continue on your path.
@ Ben and Shannon
Thanks! And best of luck!
@ Edison
I'm not exactly sure yet but I'd really like to do pediatrics.
@ Erin
My mom is a allopathic dermatologist, my dad is an osteopathic family physician and I hope to be an osteopathic pediatrician. I really like the osteopathic technique its so hands on and can help people feel much better in a matter of minutes. What are you interested in? and thanks for the question :)
@Lindsey and @ Erin Osteopathic medicine is very interesting. I took the time to shadow one and Found it very interesting. I loved the ability to communicate with patients and spend time with them instead of rushing off to the next room. I found it very enriching. Unfortunately, Massachusetts (where I am moving) does not have any DO schools. I was very disappointed. I'm thinking about taking some classes on Chinese herbal medicine though and maybe incorporating it into my practice later in life.
ReplyDelete